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Study guides → Entrepreneurship and Business Management N6
Entrepreneurship and Business Management N6: where the marks actually are
Strategy and growth — competitive analysis, competitive advantage, buying an existing business, franchising, and taking a business plan international.
N6 is being phased out. DHET is closing the NATED Report 191 programmes and replacing them with occupational qualifications. Its teach-out schedule (DHET TVET Circular TC 0134, 24 July 2025) gives the last national N6 examination for Business and Services Studies as Semester 1 2028. The last cohort gets a first sitting in Semester 2 2027 and one repeat semester — two chances, not the usual open-ended ones.
This is not a reason to stop. The National N Diploma can still be awarded up to 30 June 2029. Complete before 30 June 2026 and you receive the certificate exactly as now; after it, a DHET Statement of Results, which still counts toward the diploma. The Minister confirmed in June 2026 that qualifications already achieved stay valid and enrolled students should carry on.
Check your own dates with your college. The Department has since issued a revised circular, TC 0134(b), which it has not published, and further extensions were gazetted in June 2026 — so the date above is what DHET last put in writing publicly, not a promise about your intake.
What the exam is worth, module by module
These are DHET's own weight values. The syllabus states that a module's weight value gives the time to be spent teaching it and its share of the marks in the final exam — so this table is, in effect, the mark allocation of your paper. It totals 100.
| Module | Weight | |
|---|---|---|
| International business plan | 20 | |
| Buying an existing business | 13 | |
| Franchising business | 13 | |
| The implementation of strategic planning in a business | 10 | |
| Competitive analysis | 10 | |
| Strategy and competitive advantage | 10 | |
| Consultancy | 10 | |
| Dynamic business environment | 8 | |
| Planning your business | 6 |
How to spend your time
- The international business plan is 20 marks, the largest single module, and it pulls together everything else on the paper. Treat it as the destination, not a topic.
- Buying an existing business and franchising are 26 marks together — more than a quarter of the paper is about acquiring a business rather than founding one.
- Planning your business is only 6 marks here because N5 already covered planning. Do not re-study N5 material hoping it pays out at N6.
How you are assessed
Two things have to go right, and students lose the year on the first one more often than the second.
1. Your college (ICASS) mark
You need at least 40% to qualify to write the final exam at all.
2. The final examination
You pass at 40%.
- The paper is out of 200 marks in total. Section B (elective questions) is 150 of those marks and runs 2 hours 30 minutes.
Also doing N6 this trimester?
These are the other N6 subjects we have syllabus breakdowns for.
- Mathematics N6Integration techniques carries the most marks (18 of 100)
- Industrial Electronics N6Ultrasonics, X-rays and radioactivity carries the most marks (15 of 100)
- Electrotechnics N6AC machines carries the most marks (30 of 100)
- Mechanotechnics N6Kinematics carries the most marks (20 of 100)
- Power Machines N6Air Compressors carries the most marks (20 of 100)
- Fluid Mechanics N6Pumps carries the most marks (22 of 100)
- Computerised Financial Systems N6Salaries and wages system: payroll package carries the most marks (25 of 100)
Source: DHET — Entrepreneurship and Business Management N6 Syllabus (Report 191, 2025–2026). Module names, weight values, admission requirements and assessment rules on this page are transcribed from that document. The study advice is ours.